Latest show I went to was High Cotton. Local Widespread Panic cover doing diddys from the time of Mikey. If yall get a chance to see these guys, DO IT. I love me some High Cotton!!! The lead guitar player is actually named Mike! haha. Keeping the tradition alive he sits on a stool the whole time and he is awesome. The whole band is incredibly friendly and for a band that hasnt been together that long, they sure song crisp! Saw them at the Ale n the Witch, my local watering hole in St. Petersburg.

_________________an honest tune with a lingering lead thats brought me this far

Mon Apr 07, 2014 12:40 pm

tieyourshoes51

♫♫ Wanee Master ♫♫

Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:52 pmPosts: 6586Location: Brandon, Florida

Re: What was your LAST show? Show reviews

GavinP1313 wrote:

Latest show I went to was High Cotton. Local Widespread Panic cover doing diddys from the time of Mikey. If yall get a chance to see these guys, DO IT. I love me some High Cotton!!! The lead guitar player is actually named Mike! haha. Keeping the tradition alive he sits on a stool the whole time and he is awesome. The whole band is incredibly friendly and for a band that hasnt been together that long, they sure song crisp! Saw them at the Ale n the Witch, my local watering hole in St. Petersburg.

Thanks, GavinP1313! I manage to keep missing them. Doesn't say much about me as an alleged WSMFP fan!

_________________"Bring the band on down behind me, boys." -- FZ

"Remember: music is a religion. You have to pray every day." -- Jose' Luis "Cheo" Pardo, Los Amigos Invisibles

Mon Apr 07, 2014 1:59 pm

tieyourshoes51

♫♫ Wanee Master ♫♫

Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:52 pmPosts: 6586Location: Brandon, Florida

Re: What was your LAST show? Show reviews

WANEE FESTIVAL 2014Thursday, April 10, Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Live Oak

If you want to talk about a whirlwind of emotions, try this on for size: the Wanee Festival, brainchild of the Allman Brothers, celebrates its tenth year at SoSMP, AND Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks, ABB’s two guitar players (for 25 and 15 years, respectively) announce they will leave the band at the end of the year. THEN add concern because Gregg Allman had to postpone the last four Beacon shows due to bronchitis. And THEN, unbeknownst to us at the time, Gregg broke his hand before the shows Friday and Saturday.

Got all that?

No matter. It was another magical time at a magical place with magical friends listening to magical music.

Friends have kindly referred to my past scribbling as reviews, but know this. I review what I like, for the most part. It’s part altruistic, part selfish. I certainly want all of these bands to have great success – that’s the altruistic part. But I also want to cheerlead for my favorites, afraid that I might be personally responsible for a band’s demise if I don’t. Absurd? Mostly, but still. This is my part in the game.

This was an interesting festival. There were a few bands I just wasn’t interested in, although I gave each one at least 20 to 30 minutes. You can set your flamethrowers to ‘immolate’ again: Ziggy Marley, Blues Traveler, Chris Robinson Brotherhood and Lynyrd Skynyrd are in that bunch. So understand that this is just my take on stuff I like. I met lots of people with fairly opposite tastes from mine. On the other hand, there were a number of bands who rose to the occasion and went far beyond and some impressive performances from bands I did not know, or at least not well enough.

There is always a great early-bird special line-up on Wednesday, and I always miss it (I am REALLY going to enjoy retirement!). Those who attended said they had a blast and mentioned most often CopE and the Heavy Pets, two of Florida’s premier jam bands.

In fact, I arrived too late Thursday to see Berry Oakley’s Skylab, but I did catch Sean Chambers, a blues rocker. His set was choogling along, when suddenly it seemed to catch fire, and the last 20-25 minutes were a string-bending blur, much to the delight of the small but growing crowd at the Mushroom stage.

Bobby Lee Rodgers has become a Wanee fixture. Again this year, his trio got a slot on the Thursday bill and short early sets the next two days. Rodgers is a truly underappreciated guitar player, and these three performances were the best I have ever seen from him. Imagine if Wes Montgomery had become a crossover rocker. That’s Bobby Lee. He is also a strong singer and gifted songwriter. BLR has been working for some time with Tom Damon on drums. Damon is a monster, and his smile is positively infectious (like Michael Garrie’s from CopE). At the Sunshine Blues Festival in January, they worked as a duo, but for these gigs (and, boy, I hope this is permanent) Rodrigo Zambrano was on bass. What a find! BLR gave him tons of solo space, and he just killed it!

By this point, I was on an emotional high, and out came the Blind Boys of Alabama. RESPECT. No audience was as quiet or attentive all weekend. The Blind Boys bring messages of hope, love, redemption and faith, and their performance was riveting. Featured were songs from “our new record” (“I’ll Find a Way”), including this gem (both as a song and a song title): “There Will Never Be Any Peace (Until God Is Seated At the Conference Table).” They also sang a wonderful version of Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky.”

Next up was the first Allman connection of the festival, with Devon Allman playing in the fabulous collective called Royal Southern Brotherhood. It was also the first Neville connection, as Cyrille Neville sings and plays percussion fronting the band with Devon on guitar. And don’t forget blues slinger Mike Zito. Last year’s show was great; this was magical. For me, much of the credit must go to the rhythm section. There are few duos in this business who can match Yonrico Scott on drums and Charlie Wooton on bass. Time and again during the set, I was drawn in by the steady pulsing coming from the back of the stage.

More magic arrived in the form of Hot Tuna, this time in an electric setting. Jack, Jorma and Barry did their thing with great style and flair. This was a more cohesive set than at last year’s Wanee.

I have mentioned that once in a while you hear a band in way you just never have before. I’ve seen Soulive before, seen Eric Krasno a dozen times, and bought most of the Soulive CDs. I have been a fan ever since I stumbled across their first disk, “Turn It Out.” But until Thursday, I had never HEARD them sound like a Blue Note or Prestige jazz record (and I say that with the highest praise). The trio was simply awesome, a magnificent close to a perfect first day of Wanee.

I already had my money’s worth. So the next two days would just be, you know, icing on the Wanee cake.

_________________"Bring the band on down behind me, boys." -- FZ

"Remember: music is a religion. You have to pray every day." -- Jose' Luis "Cheo" Pardo, Los Amigos Invisibles

Wed Apr 16, 2014 12:08 am

beach bob

Wanee Veteran

Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:48 amPosts: 795

Re: What was your LAST show? Show reviews

tieyourshoes51 wrote:

WANEE FESTIVAL 2014Thursday, April 10, Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, Live Oak<snip>I already had my money’s worth. So the next two days would just be, you know, icing on the Wanee cake.

That's exactly how I felt. My son Mikey and I were both stoked to see the Blind Boys, and Soulive, for the first time, and they did NOT disappoint.

My son: he's wise beyond his years, and was truly excited to see some living legends in the visage of the five dapper gents that comprise the Blind Boys. He chased down their people after the set so he could buy a CD, which were not at the merch booth for whatever reason, and was thrilled to meet a couple of them. Label me jealous-- I was off doing something else (who knows what!), and there's no way was it anywhere as cool as meeting such giants of the music world. I've said it before: I'm just his driver, he's the charmed one.

And the Royal Southern Brotherhood's set SMOKED. Everyone in that band is a top player, and is capable of leading their own outfit. Indeed, most of them have at some point or another. Truly a league of extraordinary musicians, pardon the expression. But it fits.

Soulive was amazing as well... they did what *real* jazzers do: take a known song, and recast it in an entirely different setting and mood. Thus it was with Eleanor Rigby, and Lenny, and Third Stone From The Sun... amazing stuff...

Friday and Saturday were all bonus. Thursday was worth the full admission price, IMO.

Wed Apr 16, 2014 11:29 am

scotydog826

Wanee Lover

Joined: Tue Jan 26, 2010 3:41 pmPosts: 1469

Re: What was your LAST show? Show reviews

Thursday was smokin' for sure

Wed Apr 16, 2014 4:39 pm

whole lot of love

Wanee Lover

Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:33 pmPosts: 1084

Re: What was your LAST show? Show reviews

thursday night was indeed fun for me soullive fan for yrs and they and their light how did not fail. their covers sound more like soullive than the artist they are covering. royal southern brotherhood also performed a good show. the neville brothers relative stepped up to the plate and hit a home run

Wed Apr 16, 2014 6:17 pm

whole lot of love

Wanee Lover

Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:33 pmPosts: 1084

Re: What was your LAST show? Show reviews

skylab.was.good

Thu Apr 17, 2014 6:58 am

tieyourshoes51

♫♫ Wanee Master ♫♫

Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:52 pmPosts: 6586Location: Brandon, Florida

Re: What was your LAST show? Show reviews

whole lot of love wrote:

skylab.was.good

Yeah. I have GOT to do better getting out of the house on time!

Rats...

Sorry I missed them.

_________________"Bring the band on down behind me, boys." -- FZ

"Remember: music is a religion. You have to pray every day." -- Jose' Luis "Cheo" Pardo, Los Amigos Invisibles

Thu Apr 17, 2014 9:31 am

tieyourshoes51

♫♫ Wanee Master ♫♫

Joined: Tue Feb 16, 2010 4:52 pmPosts: 6586Location: Brandon, Florida

Re: What was your LAST show? Show reviews

CONSIDER THE SOURCEDunedin Brewery 04.17.14

Somebody in Atlanta please call FEMA. Now. Get ‘em on speed dial or something. There is no chance that Terminal West in Atlanta will be standing after Saturday night. In fact, alert Jacksonville tonight, too. Underbelly’s may suffer the same fate as the Dunedin Brewery did last night.

Because Consider the Source tore the roof right off the sucker last night. Gone. Poof! And the seismic implications of what will happen when CTS, Tauk and the Motet converge on Marietta is beyond comprehension.

The Motet I’ve know about for ten years, but I never saw them until Bear Creek 2013 – twice – and just WOW! And I had never heard of Tauk until a few weeks ago, when I lucked into seeing them twice – incredible! And now Consider the Source, another band I did not know before this week. I plan to do a full-blown shout-out about the Dunedin Brewery in my *spare time*, because they (and several other local clubs) continue to bring in amazing music week after week, keeping the Tampa Bay music calendar chock-full of magic and surprises. Dunedin always posts blurbs about the bands coming, and that has helped me in my music selection at least a dozen times (read: Serotonic, Holey Miss Moley, Future Vintage and more). [OK, it also doesn’t hurt that they have awesome beer and food!]

So I read the blurb about CTS. To paraphrase a movie line, “They had me at McLaughlin and Coltrane.” I will attempt a brief description, but the bio on their website is extremely well written and accurate, so be sure to check that out. Their music is strong, muscular, fusion on top of rock on top of jazz on top of Eastern rhythms on top of reggae beats on top of polyrhythms. I know that doesn’t help much, but my brain exploded about halfway through the second set (they played three and a half hours), and I am trying to pick up the pieces.

Gabriel Marin plays this bad-ass-looking fretless double-neck guitar, and he is the only man I can recall who plays in the style of John McLaughlin AND makes it sound awesome. With John Ferrara on bass and drummer Jeff Mann, the music pivoted and turned and swirled and twisted itself inside out. It was a masterful, magnificent, uncompromising performance.

I am not much a fan of bass and drum solos, but sometimes they work out perfectly. That was the case last night, when Gabriel announced that “This will be our last song” and went to sit down with Mann. Ferrara then played the introduction to “Ol’ Chomper” solo, and it was spectacular and cohesive. Mann then joined him on stage, and he got solo space with Ferrara pitching in, and that was a cohesive solo, too, making sense in the context of the song, not just a flailing (as we have all seen too many times). By the time Marin joined them, what little was left of the brewery roof just flew off into the Gulf someplace. With my brain.

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